The idea of telematics appeared more than a decade ago and it is possible to define it, in a general and simple way, as a communication system for collecting, processing and distributing information. The transport services market is definitely the most important area for telematic applications. Transport-telematics issues constitute a field of knowledge of transport that integrates information technology and telecommunications in applications for managing and controlling traffic in transport systems, stimulating technical and organizational activities that ensure improved effectiveness and safe operation of such systems. Integrated and cooperating telematic applications constitute intelligent transport systems. The basis of such systems is to efficiently collect and process information and to manage its flow within the system. This enables supplying information from almost all areas of transport activities in real time. Intelligent transport––supported by a number of integrated telecommunications, IT measurement and control engineering solutions, and by appropriate tools and software––comprises telematic applications. They have an extensive range of use in many areas of transport, allowing the integration of the means and types of transport, including its infrastructure, business organization and management processes. This monograph is a collection of selected papers presented at the jubilee transport telematics conference, TST 2010, and is the result of the work of many scientists associated with this area of knowledge and who had spent years with the conference.

A major strategy to reduce transport congestion and other social costs of transport is to ensure that travellers make the best decisions, based on real time information. A wide range of technological systems have been developed to provide this information, but little is known about how travellers actually respond to it. This book offers an overview of various transport telematics options and provides an appropriate methodological framework, followed by a presentation of results from actual applications of these telematics systems from a range of European countries in various transport sectors. The empirical results are supplemented by analytical models and geographic information systems representations with a view on generalizing these findings and identifying the key parameters which determine user response.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Transport Systems Telematics, TST 2013, held in Katowice-Ustron, Poland, in October 2013. The 58 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this book. They provide an overview of solutions being developed in the field of intelligent transportation systems, and include theoretical and case studies in the countries of conference participants.

This book combines wireless telematics systems with dynamic vehicle routing algorithms and vehicle-positioning systems to produce a telematics-enabled information system that can be employed by commercial fleet operators for real-time monitoring, control, and planning. The book further presents a Messaging And Fleet Monitoring System and a Dynamic Planning System (DPS) that provides real-time decision support considering the current state of the transportation system.

This book contributes to the identification and systematisation of current telematics solutions applied in maritime and inland waterway transport. It represents the first time that most telematics systems currently applied in the modes of water transport have been described in detail. The volume details the massive scope of the application of telematics solutions in maritime transport, showing how it ranges from simple systems of navigation to unmanned systems which have resulted in the first attempts at launching fully autonomic vessels. The current challenges in the field involve the integration of the systems of maritime and inland waterway transport within the framework of multimodal transport operations.

INTELLIGENT TRANSPORT SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS This book provides a systematic overview of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), offering an insight into the reference architectures developed within the main research projects. It delves into each of the layers of such architectures, from physical to application layer, describing the technological issues which are being currently faced by some of the most important ITS research groups. The book concludes with some end-user services and applications deployed by industrial partners. The book is a well-balanced combination of academic contributions and industrial applications in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems. It includes the most representative technologies and research results achieved by some of the most relevant research groups working on ITS, collated to show the chances of generating industrial solutions to be deployed in real transportation environments.

The publication contains numerous valuable guidelines one will find particularly useful while making decisions concerning development and improvement of transport systems. It provides a multitude of case studies connected with diverse problems of both technical and organisational nature. The knowledge displayed while discussing practical examples as well as the decision making support systems described in the publication will certainly attract interest of those who face the challenge of seeking solutions to problems of contemporary transport systems on a daily basis. Consequently, this publication is dedicated to local authorities involved in planning and preparation of development strategies for specific transport related areas (in both urban and regional dimension) as well as to representatives of business and industry, being those who participate directly in the implementation of traffic engineering solutions. The guidelines provided in individual chapters of the publication will make it possible to address the given problem in a technologically advanced manner and simplify the choice of appropriate strategies (including those related to increasing competitiveness of public transport, integration of supply chains or route planning support by means of technologically advanced systems and applications). On the other hand, since the publication also concerns the new approach to theoretical models (including travel models, capacity models, road condition modelling and speed-volume relationship), it will raise interest among researches and scientists studying this body of problems. The publication entitled Contemporary Challenges of Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering contains selected papers submitted to and presented at the 13th ”Transport Systems. Theory and Practice” Scientific and Technical Conference organised by the Department of Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering at the Faculty of Transport of the Silesian University of Technology. The conference was held on 19-21 September 2016 in Katowice (Poland). More details at www.TSTP.polsl.pl